This morning the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk MP announced a new EV policy that will see electric vehicles be more accessible to more Australians.
Under the new plan, from July 1st, Queenslanders will receive a $3,000 subsidy for anyone buying an electric vehicle to the value of $58,000.
That threshold is considerably less than the ~$68,000 limit found in VIC and NSW. This means that subsidies will apply to six models currently available in Queensland and sadly not even the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range is under that threshold. You also won’t be eligible if you order any of the new great EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Polestar 2 or Kia EV6.
Queenslanders will have some of the following vehicles to choose from:
- Hyundai Ionic
- Hyundai Kona EV
- Kia Niro
- MG ZS EV
- Mini Countryman
- Nissan Leaf
QLD will also commit $10 million to build even more public charging stations, a great addition to the existing charging network and given the size of QLD, that will be greatly appreciated by current and future EV owners.
The new EV chargers will be jointly-funded with the local government and private sector. This will help the many Queenslanders currently waiting for electric vehicles to become more accessible and affordable so they can make the switch.
This announcement is a key part of the QLD State Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy which has a goal of reducing emissions and reducing the impact of climate change. In light of the recent floods in QLD and NSW, it’s timely that Governments would help Australians get into EV.
With petrol prices setting new records around the country right now, changing to an EV, if you can manage the upfront purchase price, has the opportunity to greatly reduce your ongoing costs.
Hyundai has a savings calculator on their site and with assumptions like $2.20/L and $0.30kWh for electricity, you could save close to $2,000 per year in petrol costs alone. Add the reduced costs for servicing and EV ownership certainly looks a lot better if you can afford the cost of entry.
